Cos eye former employees to beat talent crunch

New Delhi: The well-proven adage `Old is Gold` seems to guide corporates fighting talent shortage, as many entities are re-hiring former employees, a move that helps in saving on recruitment costs as well as time.

"Companies are calling back their old employees. After the recession, organisations have realised that old is gold, and are calling back the old employees to reconstruct their talent pools," HR consultancy Planman`s HR director and managing partner Deepak Kaistha said.

According to experts, companies are even ready to take back employees who were laid off as part of cost cutting measures in the wake of 2008-09 financial crisis.

Spread across diverse sectors, the idea of re-hiring former employees is gaining momentum especially in the IT and ITeS industry, with entities like Infosys leading the way.

"It is a great way (hiring former employees) to save recruitment cost and time, where multi-interview processes are not required," executive search firm GlobalHunt`s director Sunil Goel said.

Staffing firm TeamLease Services` GM (Permanent Staffing) Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi said it is increasingly seen that many firms are hiring former employees, especially those who were separated due to reasons other than performance.

Recently, state-run BHEL invited its ex-executives to rejoin it, through an advertisement in a leading daily.
"With an impressive order book and turnover poised for Rs 45,000 crore by the term of current Five-Year Plan, it would like to consider its old family members, having experience in any of the areas given below, who left BHEL on resignation and are now desirous of returning back," BHEL advertisement said.

Explaining reasons behind the trend, Goel said companies are looking to get back their talented employees back as their credentials and abilities in job have been proven.

"This is coming up as a win-win situation for both companies as well as employees as they have tested different waters and have already done comparison analysis," he added.
Viewing the trend from the side of employees, Kaistha opined that as long as there is no stigma attached to the idea of re-hiring, many would love to come back to their former employers.

"It is the responsibility of the HR department to see to it that the employee does not feel out of place because of the time lapse during his absence," he added.